The Kamaiyas (bonded labourers) were declared free in July 2000. But after spending over Rs. 50 crore — albeit without proper homework — the government has not been able to show much of a visible change. Today’s programme of Singhadurbar

gherao and capture of public land in the capital by hundreds of freed Kamaiyas aims to remind the government of its broken promises. Though the then government’s decision was a commendable one, it, however, failed to provide each Kamaiya family with the promised 10 katthas of land, Rs. 10,000 in cash and 35 cubic feet of wood for the construction of a house. Successive governments did no better; as a result, over 30,000 freed Kamaiyas of the western Terai are still without a home.

Political freedom, per se, cannot automatically guarantee fulfilment of the basic needs. It is debatable whether the government can provide land to every single ex-Kamaiya family. There are many more landless people of other communities in the country. But it becomes incumbent on the government to enable the ex-Kamaiyas to resettle and earn a decent living. The stress should be on making them self-reliant and economically independent. Vocational training, skill development, micro-credit without collateral, reasonable financial assistance and educational facilities for their children would provide better long-term solutions to their problems of unemployment and poverty. In order to make the services easily available for the eligible, bureaucratic red tape, including the cumbersome identification process, needs to be considerably reduced.